20 years of Placebo. 20 years and now I was about to see them live for the very first time. I can’t really say why. Anyway, I was finally there. Since I had to work that day I showed up a little late, so I only got to hear the last bits of the support band “Deaf Havana” from London. But what I heard sounded pretty good. I might have a closer look on these guys.

To start the Placebo show, they displayed the casino video of “Every You Every Me”. Unfortunately this meant, they wouldn’t play the song live. Too bad, I’d have loved to hear it. But 20 years of band history offers many great songs to fill a setlist.

The band went onstage and kicked it off with “Pure Morning”. After the first two songs, Stefan spoke to the audience in surprisingly good German: “Guten Abend, München! Herzlich willkommen zu unserer Geburtstags-Party!” A couple of songs later, Brian introduced the whole band in a quite funny matter. He had a very specific way to address he crowd: “Ladies and Gentlemen, and those of you who find themselves in-between, which – statistically – are many. Some of you might not even know it yet, but after tonight you will.”

During “Without You I’m Nothing” they showed a couple of David Bowie pictures on the screen as a tribute which led to many cheers. After “Lady Of The Flowers” Brian made a short announcement: “This is the end of what we call ‘the melancholic section’ of our show. For 20 years we’ve been supreme melancholists – and professional onanists – there’s not a lot of money in this, though.”

Motto for the second part of the show: “There’s no Spaß without dancing”. So now it was time for the rocky stuff, because after all, it was supposed to be a birthday party. And the audience did dance, even in the seated areas.

They did two encores and ended the show with “Running Up That Hill” which I liked very much. I enjoyed my evening with Placebo and I definitely won’t wait for another 20 years to see them again.

01. I’ve Been Losing You
02. Cry Wolf
03. Move to Memphis
04. Stay on These Roads
05. The Swing of Things
06. Cast in Steel
07. Crying in the Rain
08. Mother Nature Goes to Heaven
09. We’re Looking for the Whales
10. Velvet
11. Lifelines
12. Here I Stand and Face the Rain
13. Scoundrel Days
14. Sycamore Leaves
15. Foot of the Mountain
16. She’s Humming a Tune
17. Hunting High and Low
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18. The Sun Always Shines on T.V.
19. Under the Makeup
20. The Living Daylights
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21. Take on Me

My very first a-ha – Show ever! Back in 2010 when they split up and I saw their last show on DVD I thought: “Damn, I never made it to one of their shows! Why have I never been to one of their shows?” I simply couldn’t tell. Then in 2015 I learned they were going on tour again. This time I took my chance an bought a ticket. I picked Zurich as a location so I could also meet some dear friends I haven’t seen for a while. I had this ticket lying around for more than a year and I was really looking forward to see the show.

I spent a lovely day in Zurich with my friends and we took a bit longer than expected. So I missed the support band but luckily I arrived on time for Morten, Magne and Pål. My seat was really close to the stage so I had a very good view. The band started shortly after 9 p.m with “I’ve Been Losing You”. There were way more people on stage than I expected. One of them was Anneli Drecker who did amazing backing and lead vocals.

The setlist consisted of a mix throughout the past 30 years of the band’s history. Of course most people were waiting for the classics like “Stay on these Roads” or “Hunting High and Low”. Morten was not very talkative so Magne was in charge of audience interaction. He did most of the talking and was quite funny. Before he sang “Livelines” he orderd the people to hold up their phones with the flashlights on. “Those of you with low battery: screw you. You should have fucking charged before you got here!”

I was really stunned when Pål started singing “Velvet”. What an amazing voice! I wasn’t expecting that at all. And Morten’s voice is just flawless. I was truly amazed how he catched even the highest notes with seemingly no effort. No wonder he needed some breaks during the show while the others provided the vocals. Hard to believe he’s already in his fifties.

I was really impressed by the singing skills of the Zurich audience. While playing “Hunting High and Low” Morten asked them to sing and they were really good. But a bit too quiet for Morten’s taste. “Zurich, you won’t find anything this way!” The first encore started with “The Sun always shines on TV” which made people literally jump off their seats. The show ended with “Take on Me” and everyone was ecstatic.

By the way: I loved the stage design. It complimented the songs extremly well. I had a great evening in Zurich with a fantastic band and I will surely see them again if they do another tour.

This show was a first for me in quite a few ways. It was the first time I went to an Imagine Dragons show. It was the first time I went to a show of a band I didn’t know anything about. I didn’t know the band member’s names. Yes, I admit it, I had to google them before writing this article. Just found out that every band member is younger than me. Also a first. It was the first time I went to a band’s show without owning any of their records. So, why did I even go?

Yes, I was asking myself this question while I was at the venue yesterday. Feeling awefully tired, all I wanted was to be at home on my sofa. But that feeling was about to change. At 8pm the support band Sunset Sons started their set. What can I say… these guys are bloody fantastic! I started going to gigs when I was 15 in 1996. Until today it only happened twice that I actually considered buying a support act’s record. Well, Sunset Sons, you’re gonna be nummer three. Feel free to check them out on Facebook and on SoundCloud.

Anyway, Imagine Dragons…. Why would I go to a show of a band I know nothing about… Being slightly addicted to gigging, I was on the lookout of some shows to go to. So I came across these guys. I checked their setlist and realized that I already know a couple of their songs and really liked them. So I decided to give them a shot.

The current tour is called “Smoke + Mirrors” like their album (yes, I’m going to buy that one, too) and this also showed in the stage design which I considered well-made. The light effects complimented the songs and their vibe perfectly. Being used to a – let’s say relcutant – audience in Munich, I was surprised about the crowd’s enthusiasm. Since the band was younger than me, approximately 80% of the audience were as well. And Imagine Dragons put on a great show. Dan Reynolds’ voice is almost flawless and he kept up the energy throughout the show.

Although he pointed out that he’d just broken his wrist which happened to him for the second time in Germany. He called it a “lucky charm for Germany”. I felt a bit sorry for him when he tried to catch one of the fan’s led balloons with his insured hand. One fan threw one of the balloons against his crotch. His response: “I will never forgive you for that.” There was a lot of funny Dan-fan-interaction. He spent the majority of the time on the runway surrounded by the crowd, making jokes and initiating sing-alongs. It was really fun to watch. That guy is indeed hilarious.

The show was quite short for my taste. But I guess it’ll expand once they have more songs out. I will definitely keep my eyes on them and I’m very curious about their further music career.

01. Papercut
02. Given Up
03. Rebellion
04. Points of Authority
05. One Step Closer
06. A Line in the Sand
07. From the Inside
08. Runaway
09. Wastelands
10. Castle of Glass
11. Leave Out All the Rest / Shadow of the Day / Iridescent
12. Robot Boy
13. New Divide
14. Breaking the Habit
15. Darker Than Blood
16. Burn It Down
17. Final Masquerade
18. Remember the Name
19. Welcome
20. Numb
21. In the End
22. Faint

Encore:

23. Waiting for the End
24. What I’ve Done
25. Bleed It Out

My 5th Linkin Park show brought me to Berlin. It took place at the “Stadion an der alten Försterei” and was the first concert ever held at this location. I was really excited to see the band again. Especially after receiving a mail on tuesday morning that said I won a Meet & Greet. Needless to say I was over the moon!

The day of the show was there and I made my way to the venue. I had difficulties at first to find the right entrance. I found it eventually and waited with a bunch of people for admittance which turned out to be very chaotic. The security staff clearly had no idea how to handle the crowd. Lorenzo from LPU HQ showed up and tried quite successfully to manage the situation. He checked in the LPU members since we had early entry.

There were quite a lot of people with a laminate so the chances of getting a spot in the front were quite low. Having won the m&g I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the first row anyway, so I didn’t bother. I just felt a bit sorry for the other people. After an awful long time of waiting we could finally enter the venue.

I initially looked out for the m&g meeting point where Lorenzo would pick us up to meet the band. But there were still almost 3 hours to go. Fortunately I was able to pass the time with some really lovely people. Special thanks to Jule, Heike and Johannes. You made waiting so much better! We were told to be at the meeting point at 7:40pm sharp. Everyone was there on time and we waited for someone to fetch us.

Lorenzo showed up and after checking everyone in and handing out the m&g passes, we were led downstairs. It was pitch-black down there and we could barely see a thing. We had to wait down there till the m&g for the VIP package holders was over. Time went really slow and we were joking around how we won’t be even able to see the band because we’ll be blinded by the lights or the camera flashes.

Lorenzo came back and led us to the backstage area where we were joined by the band shortly after. The group photo was taken and my heart almost stopped when Chester sat down right in front of me. The meet & greet didn’t take very long, I got my Hybrid Theory signed and I got to hug Chester again. The guys were as lovely as usual but Joe was missing. We were told that there were family issues he had to take care of. He also didn’t do the show. Whatever the matter was, I hope he and his family will be ok.

We left the backstage area and went to the front of stage section where I had a pretty good stage view. Just minutes later we could watch the band going onstage. Everyone went nuts. The show… what can I say… it was a blast. I loved the energy, I loved the setlist, I loved the crowd. Everyone was jumping, screaming, singing. During “In the End” you couldn’t even hear the band because the audience was singing so loudly.

Before admittance some of us were handed white LED balloons that we needed for a flashmob during the show. While the band was playing the ballad medley we were supposed to let them fly when they sing “let it go”. It all went perfectly fine, the band was really touched and it looked amazing. At the end some fans in the first row held up signs that said “Thank You LP”. Here’s a video of the balloons, it wasn’t recorded by me. Thanks to the person who captured this moment!

The show went by much too fast, I enjoyed every minute of it and I wished it would’ve lasted much longer. I’m already looking forward to the next one and I hope they come back real soon.

19. All My Life
20. These Days
21. Outside
22. Breakout
23. Generator
24. Aurora
25. Best of You

My very first Foo Fighters Gig! My friend had been in Manchester the week before and told me it was amazing and I was in for a treat. So my expectations were very high. But whatever expectations I had, Dave Grohl and his band exceeded them in every possible way… It was FANTASTIC!

The show started with “Everlong” and the sound was awful. You could barely hear Dave’s voice. Which is a shame because he (and Taylor btw) has an outstandingly good voice. Luckily the crew managed to fix this just in time for “Learn To Fly”. Ah, “Learn To Fly”! That was the song that initially got me into them. “There Is Nothing Left to Lose” is still my favourite album and the video is just hilarious.

The support band Hawk Eyes had sound problems aswell. Unfortunately no one took an effort to fix them so their set just sounded like indefinable noise. Poor lads…

Anyway… the Foos came on stage and Hamburg freaked out. In the seated area no one kept on their chairs, they all jumped up and started screaming. The atmosphere was just amazing. And Dave Grohl managed to keep them all on track. Song after song was played without any sort of break. “We don’t do two-hour-shows!” The first longer break occurred when the band was about to play “Big Me”. Dave spotted a fan who had painted a picture of him and wanted him to sign it. So he took that “crazy motherf*cker with the picture” on stage, hugged him and signed the portrait. It was the most touching moment I’ve ever witnessed at a gig and I was lucky enough to get it on camera. Good Guy Grohl. Someone give this man a cookie. Or a beer. Or whatever the f*ck he wants.

To make sure everyone could see him properly Dave ran back and forth on his runway that led right through the crowd. At the very end he played a little acoustic set. He announced “Wheels” as a song which nobody liked anywhere, except of the audience right here in Hamburg. Not sure what that was about. He was talking to the audience quite much and there were a lot of “f*ck”, “I’ll tell you how we do it” and “here’s the thing…” involved. Any other rockstar would have appeared arrogant. But not him. He just seems like the fun guy next door you’d love to have a pint with. I’d love to buy him a drink.

Halfway through “Times Like These” the band appeared on the centre stage and performed the song with him. Then they did 3 covers while the stage was spinning around so everyone had the chance to see the band. Very nice idea. At a couple of prior shows this stage could not be used due to the rain. Since this show was indoors there were no limitations and the band really enjoyed playing. And some champagne they drank right from the bottle. Cheers!

Back on the main stage Dave stated that there will be no encores. They won’t go offstage, waiting for the crowd to call them back out. They’ll just keep on playing until they are done playing and not wasting precious gig time. And that’s what they did. They played almost 3 hours. “Do you have to work tomorrow? … Yeah, me neither!”

After “Breakout” they played “Generator” and “Aurora”. Well, I mentioned that “There Is Nothing Left to Lose” was my favourite album, right? I was over the moon. This gig was absolutely EPIC and I’ll make sure I’ll be seeing them again.

System of a Down! Finally I made it to one of their shows. I remember last year in November I had a chat with friends about which bands we would love to see live. I said seeing SOAD would be amazing. Next day they announced their “Wake Up The Souls” – Tour. Coincidence? Maybe. Or do I have magic powers? In that case: Smashing Pumpkins!!!

Uhm… anyway. Since they only had few tour dates with just one show in Germany, I had the feeling it might be difficult to get my hands on a ticket. And I was right. I took the day off as the tickets went on sale. I sat there with 3 laptops (again!!!) just to make sure to get a ticket. I was lucky to get one, the whole show sold out within 13 minutes. It was insane.

So why do SOAD go on tour this year, why is it called “Wake Up The Souls”? Their cause is to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. About 1.5 million Armenians died in these events which up to this day are not fully recognised by the Turkish government. The band members, being of Armenian origin themselves, want to raise awareness on the Armenian genocide and on other similar events happening all around the world, while the world is looking away, leaving the victims to their fate. To learn more about “Wake Up The Souls” go to www.systemofadown.com.

To introduce the audience to their cause, they showed short comic-like video-clips during the show. The first one told the history of the Armenian genocide and how governments worked together hand in hand to cover it up. The second video stated how the genocide served as kind of a blueprint to following events like the Holocaust. The message of the third video was that genocide is not something out of our history books. It is still happening, in this very moment, it is real. The videos divided the show into three parts with changing stage scenery. At first, there was the classic band logo, during the second part there were snow-covered mountains and in the end you could see a hand reaching out. The concept of the show was very well thought out and the message was strong.

Now the show itself. At first we all had to be patient… very patient. The show was scheduled to beginn at 8pm. Since there was no support band, everyone expected System of a Down to show up at 8. Well, they didn’t. They were 40 minutes late. But once they were on stage, everything was forgotten. It was not as good as I expected. It was better, way better! These guys are AMAZING!!! To all of my friends who envy me because I made it to the show: ENVY ME!!! It was so f*cking GREAT!!!!

Although the tour promoted a very serious cause, the band was so much fun on stage. If you like to see some killer dance moves, Daron Malakian is your man. He will also kindly tell you when to form a circle pit. If you have trouble understanding the lyrics, Serj is there to help you out by miming the context of the song and to tell you when to clap your hands. Fun fact: Chop Suey is always a good occasion. And if you have no idea how to move at all, just take a look at Mr. Shavo “Epic Beard” Odadjian. He’ll show you what to do. Go to “System of a Down” and you’ll never get lost. “Everybody’s going to the party, have a real good time in Cologne!” according to Serj.

The band played their biggest hits alongside many other songs througout their repertoire. After playing “Cubert”, Daron said: “This song is called ‘Cubert’. If you know System of a Down, you probably know it. If you’re more like listening to the radio, you might know this one…” And then they played “Hypnotize”. Did I mention how much fun they are on stage? They really are. If you ever get a chance to see them live, do it. Because if you don’t, you’re missing out on a great band and an epic show. I recorded a short video, trying to capture the great atmosphere. Please excuse the poor quality, I just couldn’t stand still.

At the end of the show Serj thanked the audience for showing up and supporting their cause. There was no encore but the setlist was really long anyway. They played a very powerfull show for two straight hours. What Serj and Daron do with their voices is just incredible. I enjoyed every minute of it. Rumour has it there will be a new album by the end of this or the beginning of next year. I’m really hoping this is true and they will announce another tour. If they do, I’m so gonna be there!

01. Mashup Intro #2
02. Guilty All The Same
03. Given Up
04. Points Of Authority
05. One Step Closer
06. Blackout
07. Papercut
08. Rebellion
09. Runaway
10. Wasteland
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Leave Out All The Rest / Shadow Of The Day/Iridescent
13. Robot Boy
14. Joe Hahn Solo
15. Burn It Down
16. Waiting For The End
17. Final Masquerade
18. Wretches And Kings / Remember The Name
19. Numb
20. In The End
21. Faint

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22. Lost In The Echo
23. New Divide
25. Crawling
26. Until It’s Gone
27. What I’ve Done
28. Bleed It Out

My 4th show of The Hunting Party Tour and unfortunately my last. I’m gonna miss these guys. This time I decided to use my LPU XIII Laminate to get early entry. So I queued up with plenty of other members by the LPU sign. At about 5:15 pm they started to let us in. We received our wristbands and after a short period of waiting they would lead us inside the arena. I managed to get a spot at the runway. Excellent!

Some security guy asked me if I was ok every 30 minutes. Very nice. I was ok, for now… General admission started and soon I found myself inside a huge crowd. But I was still fine. Time went by very slowly… as usually while waiting for a show to begin. Sometimes I feel as soon as you get inside a venue you are in another dimension where every minute lasts at least 2 times as long. Of Mice & Men started their set at 7:30 pm and the crowd began to move. Still nothing to worry about although some girl fainted and had to be carried out.

At 8:30 my last Linkin Park show of this tour finally started. I was happy and sad at the same time. The intro started and the people around me went mental. There was a lot of jumping and pushing around me but it was still ok. Since I was standing at the runway, Mike and Chester walked by a lot. Everytime they came anywhere near us the guys behind me started pushing me against the barriers and even tried to push my head down so they could reach out to Mike and Chester. I was unable to move and it hurt like hell. If I ever meet these guys again I swear I will beat the shit out of them. I’ve been to a lot of gigs in my life. I know that there’s a lot of pushing and jumping and things can get really uncomfortable. But these guys were just a bunch of reckless assholes.

I still managed to stay at my spot and even to touch Chester. Some unlucky ones had to be pulled out because they fainted or were about to pass out. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this. I don’t know. It’s just really hard to enjoy a great show when the people behind you are trying to crush you to death.

The band did a great job as usual and clearly enjoyed playing. I was surprised there was no flag on Mike’s keyboard this time. For the encore someone attached an English flag with Mike’s face on it. Don’t know where that one came from. Anyway, it was a great show with the same set as in Vienna. I will certainly miss Linkin Park and hope they’ll be back touring Europe soon. I will definitely go and see them again. Maybe I’ll choose a different spot in the arena next time…

Another very small venue and another band I saw at Download Festival and wanted to check out. So I found my way to The Ritz to attend the Seether gig. Support act were LTNT and we really liked them. We even got their CD. Feel free to check them out they are one of the best support acts we’ve seen recently.

Seether started their show at 9 pm. And as usual they were not very chatty. The show lasted about 90 minutes and the setlist consisted of a good mixture of old and new songs They even did a Nirvana cover which was well received by the audience.

I really liked the show and the venue and I will definitely go and see Seether again.

Having flown in on that very morning I was extremely tired and not really in the mood to go to a gig. But we already bought the tickets so we went. The Guinness at the Grand Central did the trick and I started feeling better as we went queuing up at the venue. I have seen Volbeat at Download Festival and I thought they were pretty good.

They are quite popular in Germany where they fill the big venues like the O2 in Berlin or the Olympic Hall in Munich. So it was kind of unusual to see them in such a teeny tiny location like Manchester Academy. It only has a capacity of 2,600.

Support act was Hatebreed. I have never heard of them before. They were actually really good and surprisingly heavy. They attracted a lot of their own fans who formed circle pits and went quite wild. There were people jumping, pushing each other and throwing their beers all over the place. “First you do your “Hatebreeding”, then you do your “Volbeating!”

Hatebreed were done and we waited for Volbeat to show up. It took like forever until they finally entered the stage. The show was pretty good and we had a great time. Well, until some things in a circle pit got a little out of hand and drunk guys started a bloody fight right next to us. They were really putting the “beat” in “Volbeat”. Apparently if you don’t have beer in your hair and blood on your clothes you’re doing it wrong.

The typical Volbeat fan could not really cope with all that. A girl was standing next to me and she was clearly terrified of what was going on. We left the fight scene and watched the end of the show quite peacefully.

Michael Poulsen talked to a 10 year old boy on the gallery and crowdsurfed to him, getting him a Volbeat shirt. He then said: “Your dad owes me £10 or something.” The set was quite short but that was ok. I liked the show and it was a good start for my time here in Manchester. Seether is next.